VidAmerica

VidAmerica was a home video distributor established in 1979 as a subsidiary of Video Corporation of America and headquartered in New York City, NY. It was set up to pioneer the concept of renting videocassettes through mail, which led to failure where each week, tapes kept disappearing somewhere in the postal system, much to the chagrin of VidAmerica executives as they considered stamping the packages a "nuclear waste" before giving up on long-distance retail.[1]

VidAmerica, Inc.
IndustryHome video and software
FateDefunct
Founded1979
Defunct1992
HeadquartersNew York, New York
Key people
Al Markim
ProductsVHS

During its lifetime, VidAmerica distributed B-movies, independent films, special interest videos, and public domain titles, as well as films from the RKO Radio Pictures library and select Avco-Embassy Pictures titles, on VHS,[2] and rented most of its tapes on a seven-day basis for $9.95 to $13.95 (subscribers receive six Program Guides a year). It also originally had an exclusive rental contract with United Artists during its second year of existence (1980), as VidAmerica distributed 20 titles from the UA library (e.g. The Great Escape, Some Like It Hot, and Hair) before UA teamed up with Magnetic Video a year later.[2][3][4][5] (Meanwhile, in the UK, UA also had an exclusive rental contract with another small distributor called Intervision Video for these aforementioned 20 titles before signing a new deal with Warner Home Video in December 1981.[6][7])

VidAmerica also offered other video products (such as blank video tapes) and services (such as film-to-tape transfers). According to VidAmerica president Al Markim, the rental market's hottest sellers are then-new movies, sports blockbusters, "and the kind of material you can't see on free TV, like Oh Calcutta!". The company even did offer a few soft-porn adult movies like Emanuelle in Bangkok, despite Markim's insistence that VidAmerica will never market hard-core pornography or X-rated films.[3]

In 1983, VidAmerica signed a pact with Vestron Video, in which Vestron would handle exclusive US distribution, marketing and sales of all releases from the former.[8] These duties for VidAmerica's releases were later handled by Vestron's Lightning Video subsidiary.[9][10]

In 1986, the company was purchased by a consortium controlled by billionaire investor Ronald O. Perelman called Compact Video (his holdings also included Revlon, Four Star International, and New World Entertainment). The acquisitions of the company and Four Star were Compact Video's attempts to restructure the debts of Perelman's MacAndrews & Forbes (which owns 40% of Compact), with a combined revenue of $50 million for Compact, Four Star and VidAmerica. Unfortunately, it didn't generate as much as Perelman's other assets since most of Compact's other revenue came from acquiring a drugstore chain, so a few years after that, it had to be liquidated, with VidAmerica being split from the company as an independent again, but still under Perelman's ownership.[11][12][13][14] In 1992, VidAmerica ceased operations with the closing of Vestron, which had been its agent for nine years, and president Al Markim sold the VidAmerica library of some 150 titles to Sterling Entertainment/United American Video Corporation.[5]

References
  1. Zacks, Richard (6 May 1988). "You can shop by mail for hard to find titles". Evening Tribune. San Diego. p. C2. In the late 1970s Vidamerica was trying to pioneer the concept of renting videocassettes through the mail, but the tiny company ran into a huge roadblock. Week after week tapes kept disappearing somewhere in the postal system. Company execs were so exasperated that they considered stamping the packages "nuclear waste" before giving up on long-distance rental.
  2. New York Times The Times of the Seventies: The Culture, Politics, and Personalities that Shaped the Decade. Hachette Books. 28 November 1992. p. 64.
  3. Bins, Chuck (23 December 1980). "VCR revolution to provide wide selection for TV viewers". New Castle News. New Castle, PA. p. 8.
  4. "Panorama TV Magazine". American Radio History.
  5. Billboard. Nielsen Business Media, Inc. 28 November 1992. pp. 69–. ISSN 0006-2510.
  6. Billboard. Nielsen Business Media, Inc. 4 October 1980. pp. 72–. ISSN 0006-2510.
  7. "Happy Birthday VHS, Part II: The Forgotten Pioneers (Part I: Intervision)*". MovieMail. 19 February 2013.
  8. Billboard. Nielsen Business Media, Inc. 25 December 1982. pp. 44–. ISSN 0006-2510.
  9. Billboard. Nielsen Business Media, Inc . 23 February 1985. pp. 25–. ISSN 0006-2510.
  10. Billboard. Nielsen Business Media, Inc. 13 July 1985. pp. 9–. ISSN 0006-2510.
  11. "Compact Video Seeks Chain of Drugstores". Los Angeles Times. 8 February 1986.
  12. Sandler, Linda (2 December 1986). "Compact Video Arouses Curiosity as a Vehicle For Moves Within Ronald Perelman's Empire". The Wall Street Journal.
  13. "Compact Changes Direction: Drugstores Are Now Entertainment Firm's Mainstay". Los Angeles Times. 21 July 1987.
  14. "Reasons Emerge for the Liquidation of Compact Video". Los Angeles Times. 22 December 1987.
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